Why Do Some Beers Cost More?

By looking at specific beers- some more expensive than others- you should get a feel for why one beer may cost more than another.

Alaskan Amber

Why: Ingredients, location

Let’s start with the idea that a beer can be “only” 5% ABV and worth a premium price. Just about everything costs more in Alaska, so of course you’ll pay a bit more in Alaska, so of course you’ll pay a bit more for Alaskan Amber in a campground store at Denali National Park. Operating a brewery in Alaska has special changes, a reason why Alaskan was the first craft brewery in America to install a grain dryer for spent grain, lowering the cost to ship used grain back to the mainland.

Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel

Why: Ingredients, Transportation

Usually a bit cheaper ($2.99 for a 500 ml bottle) than Mahr’s Ungespoundet Hefertrub, and another lager that is rich and complex without being particularly high in alcohol (5% ABV).,Like Mahr’s it costs something to make sure Ayinger Dunkel is fresh- and here’s the Catch-22: because it costs more, sometimes it languishes on the shelf and then consumers complain it isn’t worth the price.

Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek

Why: Ingredients, production time, transportation

Retailing at $22-30 per bottle on-premise, this Belgian import pretty much defines the top end of what consumers call a fair price. A modest 5% ABV, this well-aged lambic from oak barrels is made with whole schaerbeek cherries, and twice the quantity as in other krieks.

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

Why: Ingredients, production time

Hercules, 9.5% ABV and 85 IBU, is one of the best examples of the relatively new double (or Imperial) Indian pale ale style. At $4.49 or so for a 22-ounce bottle, the Colorado beer isn’t exactly expensive. “Compared to our everyday session beers like DPA (Denver Pale Ale), our big beers have 50% to 75% more malt and substantially more hops,” said Great Divide co-founder Brian Dunn. “Not only do they have a lot more ingredients, but the also take two or four times as long to brew.”

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Why: Ingredients, equipment

Everything costs more when your brewery is small, and Jolly Pumpkin certainly is small (perhaps production will reach 500 barrels in 2005). Jolly Pumpkin owner-brewer Ron Jeffries conditions his French-Belgian inspired beers in wood and bottle conditions them in heavy-duty brown champagne bottles. You may even find his beers in gas stations near Dexter and Ann Arbor, MI, and they generally sell for $6.49 to $7.99 per 750ml bottle.

Orval

Why: Ingredients, production time, transportation

Although the Belgian Trappist brewery has made fermentation changes that shorten production time by a day at the front end, the beer still undergoes three weeks of secondary fermentation and five weeks of bottle conditioning in the brewery. Batches intended for the United States have their own labels, so bottling and final conditioning don’t begin until importer Merchant du Vin places an order.

Rogue Chocolate Stout

Why: Ingredients

Some beers taste of chocolate but don’t use it as an ingredient. Rogue includes chocolate malts, real chocolate and rolled oats to develop a striking bittersweet character. Should chocolate make the beer cost more? Young’s Double Chocolate (at about $2.99 for a 500ml) bottle costs a little less per ounce than Rogue (usually $4.99 for a 22-ounce bottle), and both are less than Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock ($14 for a 750ml bottle).

Southampton Publick House Cuvee de Fleurs

Why: Ingredients, uniqueness, inefficiency

At $10 or more for a 750ml bottle, this saison has heft (7.7% ABV) and finesse (flavored with edible flowers). The 660 bottles in the 2005 batch will move quickly even though they cost more than much heralded import Saison Dupont. “We are definitely a more inefficient operation than Dupont,” said brewer Phil Markowski, who wrote the book Farmhouse Ales and knows the Dupont brewery well. “(And) we hand bottle and hand label; it doesn’t get much more inefficient than that.”

Three Floyds Dark Lord

Why: Ingredients

One of many cult beers (AleSmith Speedway Stout aged in bourbon barrels is another example of similar style) produced in such small quantities that relatively few have heard of them. The brewery describes this as a “gargantuan Russian (Imperial) Stout brewed with Starbucks coffee, molasses, and honey; 13% ABV” and the resulting beer has the consistency of motor oil. Aficionados drove from as far a Connecticut and Georgia last spring to stand in line for three hours and more to pay $15 for a 22-ounce bottle (or $150 for a 12-bottle case) at the brewery’s door in the Munster, IN.

Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse

Why: Ingredients, transportation

Let’s finish with one more reminder that a beer doesn’t have to be expensive or “over the top” to deliver classic flavor, one that when fresh startles those unfamiliar with the weizen style. At $7.99 for a 6-pack it competes with American-brewed craft beers on price.